Date: Thu, 08 Jan 1998 15:31:32 -1000
From: lambda@aloha.net (Martin Rice)
Subject: QB 382: Quebec Marriage Lawsuit
Aloha auwinala kakou.
From the desk of Ron Buckmire at Queerplanet:
Canada DP Immigration, and Marriage Lawsuit
NewsPlanet Staff
Wednesday, January 7, 1998 / 02:01 PM
SUMMARY: While immigration reform on the federal level appears
to be on the way, a gay couple in Quebec is going forward with a
lawsuit for the right to marry -- and to solve their own
immigration
problem besides.
Official recommendations for major immigration reform in
Canada would recognize same-gender couples, while a gay
male couple in Quebec is seeking equal marriage rights.
Canadian Minister for Citizenship and Immigration and
Refugees Lucienne Robillard on January 6 released 172
recommendations of an Immigration Legislative Review
Advisory Group, a panel of independent consultants
appointed by the government which began work in
November 1996. Few news sources so far have made any
mention whatever of the recommendation to give same-sex
couples and common-law heterosexual couples rights equal
to those of married couples for the immigration of foreign
partners of Canadian citizens, and none have yet supplied
details of the requirements for gay and lesbian pairs to
qualify. However, that's likely to change when public
comment on the wide-ranging 168-page document is
received in February, particularly in connection with open
meetings with Robillard in five cities beginning February 27.
(Critics feel the public comment process should be extended;
one remarked to the "Toronto Star" that, "The Rolling Stones
will take longer to get across Canada.")
The report calls for massive structural changes, including
separating immigration law from refugee policy, into an
Immigration and Citizenship Act on the one hand and a
Protection Act on the other. Canada has been a world leader
in extending asylum to foreign gays and lesbians persecuted
in their homelands. Openly gay Member of Parliament Real
Menard (Bloc Quebecois - Hochelaga-Maisonneuve) said his
party was pleased by the idea of a new "protection agency"
replacing the current refugee board, and was "moderately
enthusiastic" about the recommendations overall.
Also on January 6, gay Canadian Martin Dube, his Mexican
partner Manuel Gambora and their non-gay attorney
Stephane Gendron held a press conference in Montreal to
announce their filing of a lawsuit seeking equal marriage
rights for gays and lesbians. The couple is facing an
immigration problem which legal marriage could solve
(Gambora's visitor's visa expired November 24, forcing his
return to Mexico after living in Montreal for three years), but
that's not their main motive in pursuing the case. Marriage
itself is important to the couple, who held a religious
wedding ceremony on November 4, and they want both the
sanction of the law and the legal rights now reserved for
heterosexual marriages. Gendron believes that Quebec's
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which bans discrimination
based on sexual orientation, takes precedence over the
province's civil code, which restricts marriage to one man
and one woman.
The trio say they are ready to take the case all the way to the
Canadian Supreme Court if necessary. (However, a lawsuit
brought by a Canadian-American couple denied a marriage
license in Ottawa was decided against them in 1993, and the
U.S. citizen was forced to leave Canada.) Meanwhile,
Gambora is pursuing several other options for immigration,
including the current procedure for same-gender couple
sponsorship. All involve lengthy delays, while a legal
heterosexual marriage would immediately confer residency.
---
RON BUCKMIRE http://www.math.oxy.edu/~ron/
Asst. Prof., Math Dept., Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, L.A., CA 90041
ron@abacus.oxy.edu||+1 213 259 2536 (v)||+1 213 259 2958 (f)||Gore-Boxer 2000
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